Total Eclipse (C64)

[Masna]

I've been wanting to make a stylish minimalist game for a while now, so I figured a C64 palette would be perfect.  This will be my mock-up and tileset journal, as well as a general dev-thread to cover the game's progress.
I don't have much to show right now, just a little mock-up/titlescreen trying to capture the overall style I would like to achieve.

[Mathias]

Whoa whoa whoa there, why is the C64 palette perfect? Just because it's an old 16-color palette? It's got nostalgic value, true, but that's about it. If you're wanting to emulate the Commodore, then using the palette is a natural choice, but if not, there's no reason to use it. It leaves a lot to be desired; it's been published that artists didn't even create it, it was a small group of hardware geeks, who optimized it in the name of saving on "processor power". You can come up with a better one. But then again, why even do that? The completely nuts members here have already done that for us, to a very competent degree.

Start out here. It's linked in the thread, but don't miss Arne's directory of palette images.

[Masna]

Thanks for the links, Mathias.
I'm not at all attempting to achieve a level of nostalgic masturbation, and I understand that the original palette was created by a team of incompetent programmers, but for me the palette has a somewhat ambient quality, which is ultimately what I am striving for.  I could really use some crits on the content itself rather than my artistic choices.

Here's another quick mock-up.

[Helm]

I personally find it extremely successful as is (and with the c64 palette as oppose to the arne palette though I'm sure the tileage would work with either). My only suggestion is that when you do this in the game proper, you have very smooth animations for both the main character and small ambient stuff like foliage swaying or glints on the gold keys and whatever. You can afford this since smooth 1bit animation is very fast to do once you get the hang of it.

[big brother]

I'm loving this style.

Few nitpicks - it might be nice to see more details on the shapes of things. For instance, the trees could have much more interesting silhouettes. You could draw the pine trees in "tiers" of outward sloping parts. I would also make the waves on the grass textures more vertical (or the water waves more horizontally elongated) to differentiate them more. I second Helm's advice about the animations (and the ambient ones) being very smooth.

Great start.

[Masna]

Helm@ Thanks!  That was pretty much my original intention.  I love animating in 1-bit. 

big brother@ Thank you very much for the suggestions!  I fixed up the trees, and hopefully now they're a little more interesting to look at.

I have some wonderful ideas for an experimental type gameplay mechanic, but I understand this forum is more for art than game design.
I think I failed with the arm movements, but here are some rough animations.  They're kind of bad, so I would REALLY appreciate some animation C+C.

[Jakten]

Really cool style I really like the moon!

I've got a crit for your animations. His walk doesn't look like hes walking so much as it looks like he is inching forward one step at a time (unless thats what you were going for). Both his legs and feet should follow an arc that goes both forwards and backwards.  as for the idle animation he looks very blubbery, especially his shoulders. It kind of looks like his shoulders are making a wave that ripples down his arms. I see what you are going for with it but I don't think you've got it just yet, unfortunately I'm not used to doing subpixel animation so I'm not sure how you can fix it. Pretty cool stuff though I look forward to seeing where you take this!

[Mathias]

You're welcome. I'm actually glad to see you using the palette, I love to see what people do with it. I've worked with it before (still am, too late to turn back now) and anticipate your usage of it. I just felt like asserting that using it isn't automatically a good decision simply because you're going for minimalism, the palette itself is lacking.
And you're right, the frequenters here are for more concerned with actual pixel art than game design concepts. I wish that wasn't so, since little indy games and pixel go so well together.

Are you really just 14? You seem too well articulated. Did the Dead Beat project get paused? Here's what I wanna see a game made out of!

But this game project is compelling. Makes me want to try something similar. Yet I doubt I could resist over-detailing everything. 'Nuff idle chatter, though.



I'd like to hear about your gameplay mechanic ideas. That's talking my language. I'm guessing eclipses happen regularly and have some drastic effect on the world. Do you program?

Your animations. Not sure what's occurring in the first. Is it an idle loop? Breathing? Second one is walking/running. Head seems to pump up and down without bringing the body up and down as he trots along.

Yer logo needs help, though I'm sure it's only a rough draft.

So, you're not going to AA anything? How large are your tiles? I can't really discern a standard grid. Not sure just how you'll go about it, but it seems like you'll need to select a detail level and stick with it. The moon has the most detail of any object atm. Feels like a difficult balance. And it makes me think of style emulation - if one has to force himself to achieve a certain style, how difficult that makes it when it doesn't come naturally, he has to resort to setting in place parameters he operates within, kind of like designing for the actual Commodore hardware - so many colprs per 8x8 square, etc. If you hold yourself to a set of rules like that it would help. I would have to resort to this, otherwise, like I said I'd most likely give into the temptation of minutia; my default (often not a good thing).

 . . . oh I just noticed you're sub-pixeling the character's anims (had to use another program to zoom, this place is broken). If you're doing that, why not AA other edges?

[Masna]

Mathias@ Hah hah, yes, I really am 14.  I tend not to finish things that I dislike or find bland, so Dead Beat was put on permanent hiatus.  As for that robot doodle, I think it would make a pretty awesome experimental game.

If you're really interested, the overall premise/gameplay mechanic is conservational movement.  Every time you step into a new screen, the moon inches closer to the sun.  If an eclipse is to occur, an apocalypse will erase all progress made.  By exploring more of the landscape after every apocalypse, the player will be able to map out an overall world, and thus solve every puzzle. 

I tend to enjoy games with a moral, while maintaining a fun and playable status, and I figured "enjoy the little things while they last" was a great message that certainly pertains to my current life situation.

Until recently I've only dabbled in Ruby and Lite-C, but now I'm reading Essential Actionscript 3.0 in an attempt to gain a better understanding of computer coding.  However, I am hindered by the fact that I seem to have inherited dyscalculia (a form of mathematical dyslexia).  This makes it hard to grasp certain concepts, but so far I've been able to understand the basic principles of code.

Yes, the first animation is an idle loop, but it appears to be more of an absurd jiggle.  The running sprite is badly rendered, and I made some poor decisions in regards to the sub-pixeling. 

I considered adding AA on some of the sharper surfaces (including the sun), but I feel if I were to do so I would be putting it's simplicity on the line.  As for the sun and moon, I very much like how the moon appears, but that's not to say it works with the overall design.  I haven't put any restrictions upon myself, nor do I intend to.
Oh, and yes, the screen is split up into a 16x16 grid.  Here's my tileset so far.